Was planning to have dinner at Amirah's neighbor stall, but was told it was already fully booked for that night. In order not to stay hungry for too long, we decided to give Amirah a try. The place was already packed with customers when we arrived as it was time to break fast.
We quickly ordered our food and thought the food would be served quickly. Well, our drinks did come almost immediately after our orders. But the rest took too long to come.
We ordered Hummus and Moutabel which are served with baskets of pita bread. The dishes were served cold but it took so long! The taste isn't as good as those I'd tasted few nights before at its neighbor's stall. But still not bad. The Moutabel lacked the texture that I wanted, perhaps their onion/garlic was over chopped. The pita bread served was not very good too. Some was either too tough or too soft.
Also ordered the mixed grill main course as seen in the photo. The meat were all rather tough to chew, was rather blunt and lacks in flavor. This only passable imo.
Overall the food is still considered as acceptable. Will probably not return for a next round due to the long waiting time and not so flavorful dishes.
(This review might seem a little unfair as I had a better experience few days before this nearby. Go give it a try and judge it yourself.) :)
Kopitiam literally translates into 咖啡店 or coffeeshop which is synonymous (to a certain extent) with affordable local food. However, this offering by Swissotel Singapore promises the best of local favourites at a premium price in an air conditioned environment coupled with good service.
Hidden in a corner on the second level of Fairmont, Kopitiam plays neighbour to Cafe Swiss. Decor is kept simple and uncluttered with green wooden top tables and mugs that are reminiscent of kopitiams in the old days. There's even a few push cart type stall fronts where chefs will prepare local favourites like popiah to mimic the days of old.
Popiah - This has got to be the most expensive popiah that I've eaten in Singapore, standing at $7 a roll. Brimming with ingredients, shreds of slipper lobster inclusive, the popiah looked like it could burst anytime with its thin but hardly chewy and tasteless skin. Honestly, as a whole, the popiah was tasteless. Only the taste of chilli prevailed.
Tahu Telur - Honestly, tahu telur to me is mainly comfort food and Kopitiam's rendition reminded me of those you can get at food courts islandwide - average and not the least bit outstanding. The tofu was rather chunky and I found this dish a little too sweet for my liking. The only thing I thought was quite good was the egg, which was deep fried to a crisp.
Bak Kut Teh - I've always been a fan of bak kut teh, especially the Teochew variant, which this offering didn't fall under. $15.50 got me 5 medium sized ribs, a bowl of dough fritters and rice. The ribs were actually quite good, meaty and coming across as tender with a mild bite. The soup was a tad too sweet for my liking but definitely not as sweet as the one I had at Empire Cafe, probably due to the noticable absence of wolfberries. Did I mention that the dough fritters were crackling but didn't taste fresh?
Hainanese Chicken Rice - One of the most iconic dishes of Singapore and purportedly a signature of this place, the humble Hainanese chicken rice looked disproportionately small for $17. I'm pretty sure you can get the same quantity of chicken at a hawker centre for about $3-$4. That aside, the chicken was succulent and tender without being too fatty or salty. The rice was not too oily and fragrant but a tad undercooked. Definitely not as tasty as I had expected it to be. But then again, I guess you sacrifice taste when you cut down on the oil.
Without discount, the bill came up to a shocking $61.20, which is preposterous in my humble opinion. Street food, even in "high class" restaurants, really shouldn't cost an arm or a leg. Kopi Tiam Singapore Restaurant may be effective in showcasing Singapore's culturally diverse local food to tourists but it certainly doesn't strike a chord with me, not with the prices.
Ladyironchef's namecard v1.0 was all given out, so it was to be a new look for the card. But as all the namecard was finished before i got the time to ask my friend to design a new card, so there's kind of rush to print the cards, so we just made some minor changes to the font, remove some pompous parts and the overall new look's, much simple and sleeker.
I did my first namecards with Tommy Print @ Funan, and i believe many people are familiar with them because they provide name cards at just $24 for 2 box. Needless to say as i was quite please with my first cards with them, i went back to them again for my second set.
A couple of months ago when i last went to Tommy Print at funan, there's only one branch, but they have since expanded to 2 new additionals at Square 2, and Anchorpoint. And since I'm a lazy person to go all the way to Funan, and Anchorpoint is much nearer to my place, it looked like a viable option for my future place to print my cards.
The location at Anchorpoint's much bigger than their original Funan one, for one its a proper shopfront here rather than the "kiosk" at Funan. There's one lady tending to the shop since there isn't much traffic enquiries everyday, the shop looked rather empty though, i wondered whether they really need the whole shop for their business, the one at Funan now look more than suffice. But nevertheless, a better shop means better reputation and looks better when you need to entertain yr customers.
Like what i did the last time, i saved my namecard format into thumbdrive and bring it there. But this time the lady wasn't like what her counterparts at Funan was. The last time they were very attentive to details, and went right down to guiding me to choosing the different things required for my namecard like the exact colour, font, and confirmation on a few other things, but this time there wasn't any such thing.
The lady just asked me to fill up my particulars, i paid up, and poof! It's done. No doubt it's fast, but i was quite sceptical since she didn't ask me anything about my namecard. I told her i done one before with Tommy Print and she asked for a sample of my old name card and said that she will do according.
After about 3-4 working days, i went back to collect my namecard, and to my horror, another staff showed me my "new" cards, they were my old version of the card. The staff on duty that day wasn't very sure what exactly happened. But she promptly called her boss or whoever to check, and when she checked the computer she saw the copy of my format saved, and it was indeed my new version saved there, which was different to what was print.
Anyway to cut the long story short, the staff was nice enough to apologise for the mistake made, and did the necessary "customer-service" by saying they will re-print my cards, the new one, and of course there's no additional charges. I accepted, and waited for another week before going back to collect the cards.
In conclusion, the incident could have been quite unpleasant when they print the wrong cards, but they did the necessary things to make sure that i got my new cards, and even though i had to wait an additional week for my name card, i was glad to get my new cards. Luckily i didn't need my new cards in a rush, if not the consequence will be a lot different. Anyway, i got two box of my old cards, and another two box of my new cards now!
What determine whether a dish is good? There are several factors, the freshness of the ingredients itself, the skill of the chef, and of course the sauces that are used in cooking the food. Sauces are vital to the overall taste of the dish, in simple terms, they helped to “colour up” and enhanced the food.
What will you say if chili crabs are served without the thick and spicy gravy sauce, or how about your burger without any mayo sauce? These are some simple examples, but i’m sure you got the idea. Village Wok Restaurant is a showroom for The Village Wok sauce room. Their core business is actually being a sauce distributor, and the restaurant itself is the place for their customers to sample the sauces.
Village Wok restaurant is located at Far East Square, Telok Ayer Street. I had the chance for a food tasting session there organised by Yebber, courtesy of Village Wok’s owner Miss Dawn. A table of 10, consisting of long-time yebbers and some new faces join us for this meal. The Central Business District (CBD) is virtually a ghost town on weekends, and when we went for lunch during a Sunday, there wasn’t anybody around, and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves.
Although the restaurant isn’t their main business, that doesn’t mean that the food there isn’t good, in fact it has to be good so that their customers get to taste their excellent sauce with the good food. The food at Village Wok has a large part to do with their sauces, so i thought it will be appropriate to introduce some of the sauces that we had.
I sweared by their sweet and spicy chili dip (top picture), like the name implies, the sauce is spicy with a hint of semi-sweet, excellent to go along with finger food like chicken wings and fries. There’s also the chili dip (right) which can be use for all kinds of dishes, but go especially well with chicken rice.
Popiah DIY $20 /set We started off our meal having some hands-on experience with the popiah DIY set. Now there isn’t much places which actually allow their customers to do-it-yourself (DIY) with popiah, and i have to admit the process’s very much fun and all of us enjoyed “playing” with the popiah. From what i understand, each popiah set can serve 6 people, personally i felt that the price was rather steep but for the experience of doing our own popiah, its rather worth it.
The restaurant prepared the ingredients like shrimp, lettuces, cucumbers, and the turnips (bangkuang), the popiah skin, and the sauces needed for the popiah. Everything was done in an orderly manner, you’ll just need to put all the sauces, and ingredients onto the popiah skin.
And there we have it, our very own DIY popiah. Please don’t be deceived by the ugly appearance of the popiah, i guess our popiah-making skills aren’t up to the mark yet, some of us managed to do the popiah quite decently, while some were out of shape and doesn’t resemble a popiah at all. Nevertheless, the popiah fillings were fresh, and the sauces used greatly enhanced the flavor of the popiah, not to mention that it’s made from our very own hands.
Chilled crab with special vinegrette sauce ($30 per crab) The chilled crab on its own was fresh, but eaten with Village Wok’s special vinegrette sauce it did really compliment the meat very well. Their vinegrette sauce was made from top grade vinegrette with their special recipe of course, and it taste slightly sweeter than your normal sourish vinegrette. Having said that, i’m neither a fan of crab nor vinegrette.
Fried Brinjal with crispy squid in BXO sauce ($15) Unfortunately, the next dish wasn’t my favorite neither, i also didn’t like bringal. But for food tasting sake, i gave the fried bringal a try and to my surprise it doesn’t taste as bad as i had expected bringal to be. The purple vegetable was fried with crispy squid using their special BXO sauce, and it wasn’t as brinjal-ish as i thought. The crispy squid added some extra crunch to the dish, but overall it wasn’t to my personal liking.
The Phoenix soars ($21 ) Very nice name indeed, the phoenix soar is quintessentially roast and white boneless chicken. Both chicken tasted as nice, so we were having a debate as to which one was nicer. Some preferred the roasted chicken, while some found the white chicken tastier.
The yin-yang chicken came with lettuces wrap, together with some cucumbers, tomatoes provided it with some healthy touch. And of course chilli and garlic sauce, this made an excellent dish which we couldn’t get enough of, the chicken was gone in a flash.
Black pepper ham leg ($23 ) The black pepper ham leg or pig trotters was really one dish that lingered in my mind even after the meal. Usually I didn’t really fancy eating pig trotters because of the thick layer of fatty meat, but this one was exceptionally good. Under the skin was a layer of fats, the meat below was lean to eat. And it came with Village Wok’s black pepper sauce.
For those health conscious eaters, simply remove the layer of fats below the skin. We lamented the fact that we took too long taking photos of this, which resulted in the crispy skin being a tad soft when we started eating.
Village Wok Celebration Parade ($22 ) A combination of Village Wok mustard roast pork and BBQ pork char siew. Again we couldn’t agree on whether the roast pork or the char siew was better. The char siew was tender, juicy and fulsome with the BBQ sauce. Another thing to note, Village Wok didn’t use any colouring, so the char siew here wasn’t red in colour which was evident in the usual ones.
But I always favoured roast pork over the char siew counterpart, the mustard roast pork did not disappoint, crispy layer with really tender meat. The portion of fats to meat was well balanced, not too fatty and not too lean.The roast pork, or sio bak, was really one to die for.
Steamed Pating fish with preserved vegetables ($44 ) I always had the belief that fresh water reared fish won’t be as nice and fresh as seawater fish, but the pating fish here proved that there’s always an exception to everything. According to Miss Dawn, Village Wok actually had their own fish farm to rear the fishes, so freshness was definitely guaranteed.
They used preserved vegetables, or chye poh to steam the fish. It wasn’t came out to be as salty as i had expected because they had specially soaked the chye poh in water to reduce the saltiness of the preserved vegetables. Nevertheless, i preferred my fish to steam with either salted soy bean, salted vegetables, or light sauce.
Smiling fortune noodle ($8 ) The smiling fortune noodle was Village Wok’s rendition of prawn noodles. Tangy noodles harmonised with delectable fresh prawn essence, topped with big fresh prawns. The stock base was no doubt tasty, but too salty for our liking. There was a rush for water after finishing the noodle.
Home-made Nonya Kaya with bread We had a plesant surprise when they served bread with nonya kaya for our first dessert. The Nonya kaya was home-made from Miss Dawn’s grandmother recipe.The kaya was made without any flour, and was very eggy in taste. I liked it, but i did find the kaya flavor a tad strong, nonetheless we generously spread our thin slice of bread with super thick layer of kaya!
Black glutinous rice with coconut ice cream ($4.50) I did not find the glutinous rice with coconut ice cream that special since i didn’t really like black glutinous rice. But the rest unanimously agreed that this was the must-have dessert.
Lemongrass ice cream The lemongrass ice cream was another mystery to me as i couldn’t figure out the flavor of the ice cream initially until somebody pointed out it was lemongrass. I guess its due to the fact that Thai cuisine isn’t really on my radar often, but like what the others mentioned, the lemongrass flavor was very evident, and if you like the scent of lemongrass, this will do it for you.
All in all, Village Wok Restaurant did a great job matching the food with their speciality sauce, there was a different sauce for every dish, and it complimented each other very well. Prices are generally slightly higher, but given the comparison with other Chinese restaurants, they are still considered within range.
I heard that they are very crowded during weekday lunch as the office working crowd like to frequent the place, so do make reservations in advance before going. Once again, i’ll like to thank Yebber, and Miss Dawn for the food tasting session.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Located within the Arena country club at Upper Jurong Road, opposite the Singapore Discovery Centre, Tung Lok Seafood is the mainstay of the Tung Lok group (TLG). This dinner took place actually very long ago, five months to be precise. I was hesitant in writing the post since the food was unremarkable, typical at best, and there were too many photos to handle.
We chose to have their dinner a la carte buffet priced at $33.80 for adult. The buffet had a wide range of food like Japanese cuisines, cold cut appetizer, soup, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice & noodles selections, and desserts. With a total of 50 items to choose from, we managed to eat close to 30 variety.
I would say that most of the food was average, and we tried quite a lot of variety, so i won’t go into details for each and everyone of them. I’ll highlight the ones that stood out, and the rest are really up to your own judgement if you ever go to Tung Lok to try their dinner buffet.
The pictures were taken with my old canon ixus before i got my present DSLR, so do pardon the poor photos.
Poached prawns (limited to 100g per person) The poached prawns were one of the few dishes that had limits, which meant that they were not available for re-ordering. Not that the poached prawns were that fantastic anyway.
California Maki The California maki was actually the saving grace for the dinner. I wouldn’t say that the sushi was exceptionally fresh, but they were acceptable and we had two servings of them.
Barbeque roast meat platter The barbeque roast meat platter was also one of the few that stood out. The char siew was not bad, but the roast chicken was better. We were in half-mind whether to have second servings but later decided not as we were too full.
Beijing roast duck (limited to two slice per person) The Beijing roast duck was no doubt one of the more pricer dishes, hence the limitation of two slice per person. The waiteress brought the whole roast duck in front of our table to slice it on the spot and served with spring onion, cucumber and sweet sauce. One of the better dish, but pity the limitation of the serving.
Chili crab A La Tung Lok (limited to one per table) Tung Lok’s renown for their Chili crab, they are after all a seafood restaurant. Without a doubt, the best dish among the 50 selections, the chili crab was spicy and there was a sweet hint in the thick and wonderful gravy. Served with man tou (soft white bun), i’ll say that their chili crab is on par with Jumbo, NoSignBoard and Mellben. But again, there’s the limit of one per table. Nevertheless, if you are ordering a la carte, this definitely is a must order dish.
Old cantonese style sweet and sour pork I’m a huge fan of sweet and sour pork, but Tung Lok’s rendition didn’t have the “wow” factor to entice me for second helpings.
Deep fried “soon hock” fish We were not a fan of rear fish like soon hock, so we were not really expecting much from this dish. And it turned out to be what we thought, the fish wasn’t fresh.
Crisp fried baby squids You would thought that seafood dishes were be better at Tung Lok, but the baby squids were over-fried, too charred and dried.
Ice cream puff The ice cream puff was your normal ones found in the neighbourhood deli, but i was actually quite hooked with it. Well this actually show how desirable the other dishes were.
Total bill was $142.65 for 4 person dinner buffet. Although it came with a huge selections of 50 dishes, but most of them were mediocre and not worth trying. If you don’t really mind the quality of the food, the dinner buffet does makes a rather value option since you get to try so many dishes. But if you are the type who cares about the quality, I say skip the buffet and go for their a la carte menu instead.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Ristorante Da Valentino - a small Italian restaurant famed for its excellent homely Italian food and stellar service to boot. Dining at this reclusive semi fine dining restaurant presents quite a challenge as reservations are hard to come by (minimum 2 weeks in advance) and made even harder with the restrictions placed. Reservations of more than 8 pax are usually not entertained and Valentino also enforces a two seating policy, with the first running from 6pm - 830pm and the second from 830pm till closing. This effectively means that a leisurely dinner is probably out of the question, especially in large groups.
Located at the end of a short row of shophouses at Jalan Bingka, just off Rifle Range Road, Valentino can be rather inaccessible if you don't know your way around the area (shortcuts) or have your own means of transport. The interior struck me as very cosy and homely with its low ceilings, smallish dining area, decorative memorabila on the shelves and red walls decked with photo frames.
Complimentary Bread & Minestrone Soup - The complimentary bread was simple and nice. Warm and a tad chewy without all the frills. I won't be shy to admit that I requested for another serving of the bread.
At $5.90 a plate, I was rather doubtful about the quality of the minestrone but it was surprisingly good. With just about the right viscosity and flavour, it came across as light on the palate and was a hit amongst my dining companions.
Salmon Salad & Tomino Wrapped in Bacon - I didn't think too much of the salmon salad, in which the salmon slices were smoked and served atop fresh greens simply because the smoked taste was conspicuously faint. Honestly, if I wanted to eat non smoked semi raw salmon, I would have gone to a Japanese restaurant instead.
The Tomino, which is a typical Italian cheese that comes from Piemonte and made with cow's or goat's milk (in this case it was definitely goat), created a little stir with its nice smooth texture which was complemented by the crisp bacon. Only gripe I had was that the whole dish was extremely salty. And if you can't take the rather pungent taste of goat's milk, please refrain from ordering this dish.
Fettucine Al Granchio - The dish which I was eagerly anticipating, the squid ink fettucine with crab meat. The home made pasta was al dente and featured a rich cream based sauce with a touch of tomato that was most excellent, a fact that was accentuated further by the decent clumps of crab meat. Personally I like this better than that of Da Paolo's.
Porcini, Rucola and Prosciutto De Parma - The pizza spotted a thin crust that heaved downwards under the weight of its ingredients. Please do not be mistaken that the ingredients were plentiful. On the contrary, it was adequate at best. Personally I thought the pizza was good but not exactly the type that would wow me. I mean, how bad can mushrooms, parma ham and rocket leaves taste when eaten together?
Risotto Ai Frutti Di Mare - The risotto deserved the worst dish of the evening award with its sourish overtone that reminded me of food gone stale aka chao sng. I wasn't the only one who thought so apparently. Neither the fresh seafood nor the texture of the risotto could save this dish.
Chantilly - I had requested for four of Valentino's best desserts and left it up to our waitress to decide which desserts would fit the bill. The chantilly started us off on the right note, coming across as light on the palate without the cream being overbearingly sweet.
Panna Cotta - The panna cotta's texture was reminiscent more of tofu than pudding - quivery yet firm, which isn't so bad really until you get to the taste part, which was bland and uninspiring in my humble opinion. Would have liked it much stronger.
Tiramisu - Served up in a queer shaped plastic container, the tiramisu disappointed right from the start. Even though the presence of liquer was evident, the mascarpone cheese was a tad too thick and coagulated while the sponge was dry. I had expected better.
Valentino Cake - This was one decadent cake with dark chocolate making up most part of it. There were bits of raisins and traces of rum as well, making it a sweet but dry (the sponge was dry) ending to our dinner. Could it be that the cake was left in the open for a period of time such that the sponge dried up?
On my part I paid about $56 for a share of all the dishes I reviewed above, which really isn't too expensive for the variety of food I got to sample. Food quality was a case of hits and misses and I reckon only the mains are worth the trouble. Prices for the appetisers do seem a tad over the roof while the mains are priced a notch higher than other similar restaurants. Service was great and I must say I enjoyed some aspects of the dinner.
Tiong Bahru Market is often associated with good food, and stalls obviously want to put in “Tiong Bahru” into their stall names for two reasons; first they are really the original stalls from the old Tiong Bahru, or they probably added in to give the impression that they are “old name” when they are actually not.
What’s the difference between curry noodle and laksa? Actually I’m not quite sure myself too, but i guess the obvious differences are their ingredients, curry noodles has chicken, potatoes which are not found in laksa.
Curry Noodle ($3) The curry noodle was decent, with a rather generous serving of shreded chicken, tau pok, and potatoes. But it still can’t beat the famous one at Hong Lim food centre though. Besides curry chicken noodle, they also got quite a variety of other chicken dishes like lemon chicken rice and curry chicken feet.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
I have been looking for nice kway chap for a while now, but I can’t seem to find them though.My latest hunt brought me to Tiong Bahru Market, a quick glance around resulted in two stores selling kway chap, and i chose this store over the other because this store had a slightly longer queue than the other on that day.
On a personal note, I felt that kway chap stalls does not usually have a standard rate, the charges are to their discretion and can differ on a rather wide range. I’m not saying all kuay chap stalls do that, but obviously there will be some rouge stalls around.
The kway (rice noodle sheet) was a tad too thick for my liking, and i found the soup average.
Kway Chap ($4 for one person serving)
For a person serving at $4, there’s one whole egg, taupok, and pig intestines. Even though the portion should suffice for a person, but i found the variety rather miserable, there’s no pork belly, no small intestines, no duck meat no beancurd, you know the usual stuff for kway chap.
Of course there is, but you just have to pay more for more variety. That’s why i say $4 can’t really get you much for kway chap. Nevertheless they did a passable kway chap, but there isn’t the “oomph” factor to make me try them again. Probably will test out the other kway chap stall in Tiong Bahru Market the next time round.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
This entry is way overdue and I finally got off my butt to start doing it. Well had a Chinese New Year eve dinner with one of my good friends at Peony Jade that doubled up as a catch up session.
Situated along Clarke Quay in a 2 storey refurbished shophouse, it faces the Singapore river and lies just a few doors down from Indochine. Traditionally furnished complete with mock up walls and heavy wooden doors reminiscent of the courtyards of old, it exudes scanty old world charm.
Deep Fried Live Prawns with Curry Leaves - A brilliant recommendation by our waiter I must say. I, for one, don't really fancy curry, but this dish kinda blew me away. The prawns were relatively huge, succulent and fresh, but the winner was the sauce which had a slight tinge of curry flavouring but was slightly sweet.
Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Golden Garlic - Another recommendation by our waiter and I found it quite interesting. The pork ribs were juicy and tender whilst the sauce was sweet and hinted strongly of garlic with a salty aftertaste. Every individual flavour carried itself very well, which made the dish very easy to appreciate.
Baked Cod Fish with Mango - I didn't find this dish outstanding, but it was still quite a gem. The fish was fresh, nothing less and baked till the exterior turned a hue of brownish red while the flesh remained white and firm. When eaten with the slices of mango, the natural sweetness of the fish blended in well with the sweetness of the mango, creating a delectable dish that didn't come down hard on the palate. But there's certainly room for improvement, given that the mango slices weren't chilled when served, which would definitely have gone down better with the fish.
Deep Fried Cod Fish with Oat Cereals - In all honesty, I didn't quite take to this dish simply because the oats taste was overwhelming. But my friend did fancy it, so to each his own I guess. Texture wise, the fish was well done with the flesh still firm and sweet while the exterior was slightly cripsy.
Yang Chow Fried Rice - I lament the fact that good Yang Chow Fried Rice is difficult to find. Peony Jade's rendition isn't too far off though. The rice was homogeneously cooked and had a slight "wok hei" taste. Ingredients were generous but overall I found the dish a little bland. Perhaps a little salt and sugar would be nice.
Chestnut with Egg White - Desserts kinda slided down the slope. Chestnut with egg white sounded intriguing to me so I ordered it and I regretted it right from the first sip. The chilled syrup tasted awfully weird and had this overpowering egg white taste. I took a few mouths and decided to call it quits, so you can guess how weird it was. According to the waiter, it is more popular with the older folks.
Yam with Sweet Corn Sauce - This was rather normal. The yam was a little too rough for my liking and the sweet corn sauce was way too sweet. Also, it felt weird eating yam with sweet corn. Somehow or rather, both flavours didn't go down well with each other.
Service was excellent and so was the food, barring the desserts of course. Price is rather steep though, standing at $122 for 2 pax. Do note that all portions are slightly smaller than average, so if you have 4 pax, it would be advisable to order at least 6 dishes. All in all, an enjoyable experience and definitely worth a visit if you have some spare cash to burn.
Was roaming around T3 one evening and fancied some Chinese food for dinner so ended up at Crystal Jade Shanghai Restaurant. I'm sure Crystal Jade is no stranger to most Singaporeans but I believe this Shanghai outfit is relatively new as I don't remember seeing it anywhere else before.
Crystal Jade occupies a circular space within the terminal and there is no interior to speak of as the place practices a semi open environment which allows you a view of T3's calming interior, which honestly, is good enough for me.
Xiao Long Bao - To be frank, the XLB was probably one of the best I've eaten in any Crystal Jade outlet in the past year or so (not that I've eaten at many though). Malleable yet thin skin shrouding a lump of meat that didn't carry that overwhelming pork taste and filled with tasty, albeit a tad oily, juices.
Crispy Duck with Chinese Herbs - I thought that the crispy duck came across as overly salty and dry. The herb taste was rather evident but I failed to see how it enhanced the taste of the duck, rendering the duck average at best. Served up on the side were tiny clam shaped mantous, which were similar to those I had at Szechuan court - sweet and filling.
Egg White with Shrimp & Asparagus - This dish wasn't too fantastic but I liked it solely because its comfort food to me. The prawns were crunchy but for the price, this dish could really do with more asparagus. I did think that the egg white tasted a little too raw as well.
An average but filling meal cost the 2 of us about $58, which isn't exactly cheap for the quality of food. But I guess such prices at the airport still fall into the reasonable category. Service didn't go beyond taking our orders and serving the dishes. One thing to note, please be prepared to queue if you wish to have dinner at this restaurant on weekends.
1=SGD 0.0587
Was planning to have dinner at Amirah's neighbor stall, but was told it was already fully booked for that night. In order not to stay hungry for too long, we decided to give Amirah a try. The place was already packed with customers when we arrived as it was time to break fast.
We quickly ordered our food and thought the food would be served quickly. Well, our drinks did come almost immediately after our orders. But the rest took too long to come.
We ordered Hummus and Moutabel which are served with baskets of pita bread. The dishes were served cold but it took so long! The taste isn't as good as those I'd tasted few nights before at its neighbor's stall. But still not bad. The Moutabel lacked the texture that I wanted, perhaps their onion/garlic was over chopped. The pita bread served was not very good too. Some was either too tough or too soft.
Also ordered the mixed grill main course as seen in the photo. The meat were all rather tough to chew, was rather blunt and lacks in flavor. This only passable imo.
Overall the food is still considered as acceptable. Will probably not return for a next round due to the long waiting time and not so flavorful dishes.
(This review might seem a little unfair as I had a better experience few days before this nearby. Go give it a try and judge it yourself.) :)
Rating given:
Kopitiam literally translates into 咖啡店 or coffeeshop which is synonymous (to a certain extent) with affordable local food. However, this offering by Swissotel Singapore promises the best of local favourites at a premium price in an air conditioned environment coupled with good service.
Hidden in a corner on the second level of Fairmont, Kopitiam plays neighbour to Cafe Swiss. Decor is kept simple and uncluttered with green wooden top tables and mugs that are reminiscent of kopitiams in the old days. There's even a few push cart type stall fronts where chefs will prepare local favourites like popiah to mimic the days of old.
Popiah - This has got to be the most expensive popiah that I've eaten in Singapore, standing at $7 a roll. Brimming with ingredients, shreds of slipper lobster inclusive, the popiah looked like it could burst anytime with its thin but hardly chewy and tasteless skin. Honestly, as a whole, the popiah was tasteless. Only the taste of chilli prevailed.
Tahu Telur - Honestly, tahu telur to me is mainly comfort food and Kopitiam's rendition reminded me of those you can get at food courts islandwide - average and not the least bit outstanding. The tofu was rather chunky and I found this dish a little too sweet for my liking. The only thing I thought was quite good was the egg, which was deep fried to a crisp.
Bak Kut Teh - I've always been a fan of bak kut teh, especially the Teochew variant, which this offering didn't fall under. $15.50 got me 5 medium sized ribs, a bowl of dough fritters and rice. The ribs were actually quite good, meaty and coming across as tender with a mild bite. The soup was a tad too sweet for my liking but definitely not as sweet as the one I had at Empire Cafe, probably due to the noticable absence of wolfberries. Did I mention that the dough fritters were crackling but didn't taste fresh?
Hainanese Chicken Rice - One of the most iconic dishes of Singapore and purportedly a signature of this place, the humble Hainanese chicken rice looked disproportionately small for $17. I'm pretty sure you can get the same quantity of chicken at a hawker centre for about $3-$4. That aside, the chicken was succulent and tender without being too fatty or salty. The rice was not too oily and fragrant but a tad undercooked. Definitely not as tasty as I had expected it to be. But then again, I guess you sacrifice taste when you cut down on the oil.
Without discount, the bill came up to a shocking $61.20, which is preposterous in my humble opinion. Street food, even in "high class" restaurants, really shouldn't cost an arm or a leg. Kopi Tiam Singapore Restaurant may be effective in showcasing Singapore's culturally diverse local food to tourists but it certainly doesn't strike a chord with me, not with the prices.
See all my pictures here.
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Ladyironchef's namecard v1.0 was all given out, so it was to be a new look for the card. But as all the namecard was finished before i got the time to ask my friend to design a new card, so there's kind of rush to print the cards, so we just made some minor changes to the font, remove some pompous parts and the overall new look's, much simple and sleeker.
I did my first namecards with Tommy Print @ Funan, and i believe many people are familiar with them because they provide name cards at just $24 for 2 box. Needless to say as i was quite please with my first cards with them, i went back to them again for my second set.
A couple of months ago when i last went to Tommy Print at funan, there's only one branch, but they have since expanded to 2 new additionals at Square 2, and Anchorpoint. And since I'm a lazy person to go all the way to Funan, and Anchorpoint is much nearer to my place, it looked like a viable option for my future place to print my cards.
The location at Anchorpoint's much bigger than their original Funan one, for one its a proper shopfront here rather than the "kiosk" at Funan. There's one lady tending to the shop since there isn't much traffic enquiries everyday, the shop looked rather empty though, i wondered whether they really need the whole shop for their business, the one at Funan now look more than suffice. But nevertheless, a better shop means better reputation and looks better when you need to entertain yr customers.
Like what i did the last time, i saved my namecard format into thumbdrive and bring it there. But this time the lady wasn't like what her counterparts at Funan was. The last time they were very attentive to details, and went right down to guiding me to choosing the different things required for my namecard like the exact colour, font, and confirmation on a few other things, but this time there wasn't any such thing.
The lady just asked me to fill up my particulars, i paid up, and poof! It's done. No doubt it's fast, but i was quite sceptical since she didn't ask me anything about my namecard. I told her i done one before with Tommy Print and she asked for a sample of my old name card and said that she will do according.
After about 3-4 working days, i went back to collect my namecard, and to my horror, another staff showed me my "new" cards, they were my old version of the card. The staff on duty that day wasn't very sure what exactly happened. But she promptly called her boss or whoever to check, and when she checked the computer she saw the copy of my format saved, and it was indeed my new version saved there, which was different to what was print.
Anyway to cut the long story short, the staff was nice enough to apologise for the mistake made, and did the necessary "customer-service" by saying they will re-print my cards, the new one, and of course there's no additional charges. I accepted, and waited for another week before going back to collect the cards.
In conclusion, the incident could have been quite unpleasant when they print the wrong cards, but they did the necessary things to make sure that i got my new cards, and even though i had to wait an additional week for my name card, i was glad to get my new cards. Luckily i didn't need my new cards in a rush, if not the consequence will be a lot different. Anyway, i got two box of my old cards, and another two box of my new cards now!
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What determine whether a dish is good? There are several factors, the freshness of the ingredients itself, the skill of the chef, and of course the sauces that are used in cooking the food. Sauces are vital to the overall taste of the dish, in simple terms, they helped to “colour up” and enhanced the food.
What will you say if chili crabs are served without the thick and spicy gravy sauce, or how about your burger without any mayo sauce? These are some simple examples, but i’m sure you got the idea. Village Wok Restaurant is a showroom for The Village Wok sauce room. Their core business is actually being a sauce distributor, and the restaurant itself is the place for their customers to sample the sauces.
Village Wok restaurant is located at Far East Square, Telok Ayer Street. I had the chance for a food tasting session there organised by Yebber, courtesy of Village Wok’s owner Miss Dawn. A table of 10, consisting of long-time yebbers and some new faces join us for this meal. The Central Business District (CBD) is virtually a ghost town on weekends, and when we went for lunch during a Sunday, there wasn’t anybody around, and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves.
Although the restaurant isn’t their main business, that doesn’t mean that the food there isn’t good, in fact it has to be good so that their customers get to taste their excellent sauce with the good food. The food at Village Wok has a large part to do with their sauces, so i thought it will be appropriate to introduce some of the sauces that we had.
I sweared by their sweet and spicy chili dip (top picture), like the name implies, the sauce is spicy with a hint of semi-sweet, excellent to go along with finger food like chicken wings and fries. There’s also the chili dip (right) which can be use for all kinds of dishes, but go especially well with chicken rice.
Popiah DIY $20 /set
We started off our meal having some hands-on experience with the popiah DIY set. Now there isn’t much places which actually allow their customers to do-it-yourself (DIY) with popiah, and i have to admit the process’s very much fun and all of us enjoyed “playing” with the popiah. From what i understand, each popiah set can serve 6 people, personally i felt that the price was rather steep but for the experience of doing our own popiah, its rather worth it.
The restaurant prepared the ingredients like shrimp, lettuces, cucumbers, and the turnips (bangkuang), the popiah skin, and the sauces needed for the popiah. Everything was done in an orderly manner, you’ll just need to put all the sauces, and ingredients onto the popiah skin.
And there we have it, our very own DIY popiah. Please don’t be deceived by the ugly appearance of the popiah, i guess our popiah-making skills aren’t up to the mark yet, some of us managed to do the popiah quite decently, while some were out of shape and doesn’t resemble a popiah at all. Nevertheless, the popiah fillings were fresh, and the sauces used greatly enhanced the flavor of the popiah, not to mention that it’s made from our very own hands.
Chilled crab with special vinegrette sauce ($30 per crab)
The chilled crab on its own was fresh, but eaten with Village Wok’s special vinegrette sauce it did really compliment the meat very well. Their vinegrette sauce was made from top grade vinegrette with their special recipe of course, and it taste slightly sweeter than your normal sourish vinegrette. Having said that, i’m neither a fan of crab nor vinegrette.
Fried Brinjal with crispy squid in BXO sauce ($15)
Unfortunately, the next dish wasn’t my favorite neither, i also didn’t like bringal. But for food tasting sake, i gave the fried bringal a try and to my surprise it doesn’t taste as bad as i had expected bringal to be. The purple vegetable was fried with crispy squid using their special BXO sauce, and it wasn’t as brinjal-ish as i thought. The crispy squid added some extra crunch to the dish, but overall it wasn’t to my personal liking.
The Phoenix soars ($21 )
Very nice name indeed, the phoenix soar is quintessentially roast and white boneless chicken. Both chicken tasted as nice, so we were having a debate as to which one was nicer. Some preferred the roasted chicken, while some found the white chicken tastier.
The yin-yang chicken came with lettuces wrap, together with some cucumbers, tomatoes provided it with some healthy touch. And of course chilli and garlic sauce, this made an excellent dish which we couldn’t get enough of, the chicken was gone in a flash.
Black pepper ham leg ($23 )
The black pepper ham leg or pig trotters was really one dish that lingered in my mind even after the meal. Usually I didn’t really fancy eating pig trotters because of the thick layer of fatty meat, but this one was exceptionally good. Under the skin was a layer of fats, the meat below was lean to eat. And it came with Village Wok’s black pepper sauce.
For those health conscious eaters, simply remove the layer of fats below the skin. We lamented the fact that we took too long taking photos of this, which resulted in the crispy skin being a tad soft when we started eating.
Village Wok Celebration Parade ($22 )
A combination of Village Wok mustard roast pork and BBQ pork char siew. Again we couldn’t agree on whether the roast pork or the char siew was better. The char siew was tender, juicy and fulsome with the BBQ sauce. Another thing to note, Village Wok didn’t use any colouring, so the char siew here wasn’t red in colour which was evident in the usual ones.
But I always favoured roast pork over the char siew counterpart, the mustard roast pork did not disappoint, crispy layer with really tender meat. The portion of fats to meat was well balanced, not too fatty and not too lean.The roast pork, or sio bak, was really one to die for.
Steamed Pating fish with preserved vegetables ($44 )
I always had the belief that fresh water reared fish won’t be as nice and fresh as seawater fish, but the pating fish here proved that there’s always an exception to everything. According to Miss Dawn, Village Wok actually had their own fish farm to rear the fishes, so freshness was definitely guaranteed.
They used preserved vegetables, or chye poh to steam the fish. It wasn’t came out to be as salty as i had expected because they had specially soaked the chye poh in water to reduce the saltiness of the preserved vegetables. Nevertheless, i preferred my fish to steam with either salted soy bean, salted vegetables, or light sauce.
Smiling fortune noodle ($8 )
The smiling fortune noodle was Village Wok’s rendition of prawn noodles. Tangy noodles harmonised with delectable fresh prawn essence, topped with big fresh prawns. The stock base was no doubt tasty, but too salty for our liking. There was a rush for water after finishing the noodle.
Home-made Nonya Kaya with bread
We had a plesant surprise when they served bread with nonya kaya for our first dessert. The Nonya kaya was home-made from Miss Dawn’s grandmother recipe.The kaya was made without any flour, and was very eggy in taste. I liked it, but i did find the kaya flavor a tad strong, nonetheless we generously spread our thin slice of bread with super thick layer of kaya!
Black glutinous rice with coconut ice cream ($4.50)
I did not find the glutinous rice with coconut ice cream that special since i didn’t really like black glutinous rice. But the rest unanimously agreed that this was the must-have dessert.
Lemongrass ice cream
The lemongrass ice cream was another mystery to me as i couldn’t figure out the flavor of the ice cream initially until somebody pointed out it was lemongrass. I guess its due to the fact that Thai cuisine isn’t really on my radar often, but like what the others mentioned, the lemongrass flavor was very evident, and if you like the scent of lemongrass, this will do it for you.
All in all, Village Wok Restaurant did a great job matching the food with their speciality sauce, there was a different sauce for every dish, and it complimented each other very well. Prices are generally slightly higher, but given the comparison with other Chinese restaurants, they are still considered within range.
I heard that they are very crowded during weekday lunch as the office working crowd like to frequent the place, so do make reservations in advance before going. Once again, i’ll like to thank Yebber, and Miss Dawn for the food tasting session.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Located within the Arena country club at Upper Jurong Road, opposite the Singapore Discovery Centre, Tung Lok Seafood is the mainstay of the Tung Lok group (TLG). This dinner took place actually very long ago, five months to be precise. I was hesitant in writing the post since the food was unremarkable, typical at best, and there were too many photos to handle.
We chose to have their dinner a la carte buffet priced at $33.80 for adult. The buffet had a wide range of food like Japanese cuisines, cold cut appetizer, soup, seafood, meat, vegetables, rice & noodles selections, and desserts. With a total of 50 items to choose from, we managed to eat close to 30 variety.
I would say that most of the food was average, and we tried quite a lot of variety, so i won’t go into details for each and everyone of them. I’ll highlight the ones that stood out, and the rest are really up to your own judgement if you ever go to Tung Lok to try their dinner buffet.
The pictures were taken with my old canon ixus before i got my present DSLR, so do pardon the poor photos.
Poached prawns (limited to 100g per person)
The poached prawns were one of the few dishes that had limits, which meant that they were not available for re-ordering. Not that the poached prawns were that fantastic anyway.
California Maki
The California maki was actually the saving grace for the dinner. I wouldn’t say that the sushi was exceptionally fresh, but they were acceptable and we had two servings of them.
Barbeque roast meat platter
The barbeque roast meat platter was also one of the few that stood out. The char siew was not bad, but the roast chicken was better. We were in half-mind whether to have second servings but later decided not as we were too full.
Beijing roast duck (limited to two slice per person)
The Beijing roast duck was no doubt one of the more pricer dishes, hence the limitation of two slice per person. The waiteress brought the whole roast duck in front of our table to slice it on the spot and served with spring onion, cucumber and sweet sauce. One of the better dish, but pity the limitation of the serving.
Chili crab A La Tung Lok (limited to one per table)
Tung Lok’s renown for their Chili crab, they are after all a seafood restaurant. Without a doubt, the best dish among the 50 selections, the chili crab was spicy and there was a sweet hint in the thick and wonderful gravy. Served with man tou (soft white bun), i’ll say that their chili crab is on par with Jumbo, NoSignBoard and Mellben. But again, there’s the limit of one per table. Nevertheless, if you are ordering a la carte, this definitely is a must order dish.
Old cantonese style sweet and sour pork
I’m a huge fan of sweet and sour pork, but Tung Lok’s rendition didn’t have the “wow” factor to entice me for second helpings.
Deep fried “soon hock” fish
We were not a fan of rear fish like soon hock, so we were not really expecting much from this dish. And it turned out to be what we thought, the fish wasn’t fresh.
Crisp fried baby squids
You would thought that seafood dishes were be better at Tung Lok, but the baby squids were over-fried, too charred and dried.
Ice cream puff
The ice cream puff was your normal ones found in the neighbourhood deli, but i was actually quite hooked with it. Well this actually show how desirable the other dishes were.
Total bill was $142.65 for 4 person dinner buffet. Although it came with a huge selections of 50 dishes, but most of them were mediocre and not worth trying. If you don’t really mind the quality of the food, the dinner buffet does makes a rather value option since you get to try so many dishes. But if you are the type who cares about the quality, I say skip the buffet and go for their a la carte menu instead.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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Ristorante Da Valentino - a small Italian restaurant famed for its excellent homely Italian food and stellar service to boot. Dining at this reclusive semi fine dining restaurant presents quite a challenge as reservations are hard to come by (minimum 2 weeks in advance) and made even harder with the restrictions placed. Reservations of more than 8 pax are usually not entertained and Valentino also enforces a two seating policy, with the first running from 6pm - 830pm and the second from 830pm till closing. This effectively means that a leisurely dinner is probably out of the question, especially in large groups.
Located at the end of a short row of shophouses at Jalan Bingka, just off Rifle Range Road, Valentino can be rather inaccessible if you don't know your way around the area (shortcuts) or have your own means of transport. The interior struck me as very cosy and homely with its low ceilings, smallish dining area, decorative memorabila on the shelves and red walls decked with photo frames.
Complimentary Bread & Minestrone Soup - The complimentary bread was simple and nice. Warm and a tad chewy without all the frills. I won't be shy to admit that I requested for another serving of the bread.
At $5.90 a plate, I was rather doubtful about the quality of the minestrone but it was surprisingly good. With just about the right viscosity and flavour, it came across as light on the palate and was a hit amongst my dining companions.
Salmon Salad & Tomino Wrapped in Bacon - I didn't think too much of the salmon salad, in which the salmon slices were smoked and served atop fresh greens simply because the smoked taste was conspicuously faint. Honestly, if I wanted to eat non smoked semi raw salmon, I would have gone to a Japanese restaurant instead.
The Tomino, which is a typical Italian cheese that comes from Piemonte and made with cow's or goat's milk (in this case it was definitely goat), created a little stir with its nice smooth texture which was complemented by the crisp bacon. Only gripe I had was that the whole dish was extremely salty. And if you can't take the rather pungent taste of goat's milk, please refrain from ordering this dish.
Fettucine Al Granchio - The dish which I was eagerly anticipating, the squid ink fettucine with crab meat. The home made pasta was al dente and featured a rich cream based sauce with a touch of tomato that was most excellent, a fact that was accentuated further by the decent clumps of crab meat. Personally I like this better than that of Da Paolo's.
Porcini, Rucola and Prosciutto De Parma - The pizza spotted a thin crust that heaved downwards under the weight of its ingredients. Please do not be mistaken that the ingredients were plentiful. On the contrary, it was adequate at best. Personally I thought the pizza was good but not exactly the type that would wow me. I mean, how bad can mushrooms, parma ham and rocket leaves taste when eaten together?
Risotto Ai Frutti Di Mare - The risotto deserved the worst dish of the evening award with its sourish overtone that reminded me of food gone stale aka chao sng. I wasn't the only one who thought so apparently. Neither the fresh seafood nor the texture of the risotto could save this dish.
Chantilly - I had requested for four of Valentino's best desserts and left it up to our waitress to decide which desserts would fit the bill. The chantilly started us off on the right note, coming across as light on the palate without the cream being overbearingly sweet.
Panna Cotta - The panna cotta's texture was reminiscent more of tofu than pudding - quivery yet firm, which isn't so bad really until you get to the taste part, which was bland and uninspiring in my humble opinion. Would have liked it much stronger.
Tiramisu - Served up in a queer shaped plastic container, the tiramisu disappointed right from the start. Even though the presence of liquer was evident, the mascarpone cheese was a tad too thick and coagulated while the sponge was dry. I had expected better.
Valentino Cake - This was one decadent cake with dark chocolate making up most part of it. There were bits of raisins and traces of rum as well, making it a sweet but dry (the sponge was dry) ending to our dinner. Could it be that the cake was left in the open for a period of time such that the sponge dried up?
On my part I paid about $56 for a share of all the dishes I reviewed above, which really isn't too expensive for the variety of food I got to sample. Food quality was a case of hits and misses and I reckon only the mains are worth the trouble. Prices for the appetisers do seem a tad over the roof while the mains are priced a notch higher than other similar restaurants. Service was great and I must say I enjoyed some aspects of the dinner.
See all my pictures here.
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Tiong Bahru Market is often associated with good food, and stalls obviously want to put in “Tiong Bahru” into their stall names for two reasons; first they are really the original stalls from the old Tiong Bahru, or they probably added in to give the impression that they are “old name” when they are actually not.
What’s the difference between curry noodle and laksa? Actually I’m not quite sure myself too, but i guess the obvious differences are their ingredients, curry noodles has chicken, potatoes which are not found in laksa.
Curry Noodle ($3)
The curry noodle was decent, with a rather generous serving of shreded chicken, tau pok, and potatoes. But it still can’t beat the famous one at Hong Lim food centre though. Besides curry chicken noodle, they also got quite a variety of other chicken dishes like lemon chicken rice and curry chicken feet.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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I have been looking for nice kway chap for a while now, but I can’t seem to find them though.My latest hunt brought me to Tiong Bahru Market, a quick glance around resulted in two stores selling kway chap, and i chose this store over the other because this store had a slightly longer queue than the other on that day.
On a personal note, I felt that kway chap stalls does not usually have a standard rate, the charges are to their discretion and can differ on a rather wide range. I’m not saying all kuay chap stalls do that, but obviously there will be some rouge stalls around.
The kway (rice noodle sheet) was a tad too thick for my liking, and i found the soup average.
Kway Chap ($4 for one person serving)
For a person serving at $4, there’s one whole egg, taupok, and pig intestines. Even though the portion should suffice for a person, but i found the variety rather miserable, there’s no pork belly, no small intestines, no duck meat no beancurd, you know the usual stuff for kway chap.
Of course there is, but you just have to pay more for more variety. That’s why i say $4 can’t really get you much for kway chap. Nevertheless they did a passable kway chap, but there isn’t the “oomph” factor to make me try them again. Probably will test out the other kway chap stall in Tiong Bahru Market the next time round.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
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This entry is way overdue and I finally got off my butt to start doing it. Well had a Chinese New Year eve dinner with one of my good friends at Peony Jade that doubled up as a catch up session.
Situated along Clarke Quay in a 2 storey refurbished shophouse, it faces the Singapore river and lies just a few doors down from Indochine. Traditionally furnished complete with mock up walls and heavy wooden doors reminiscent of the courtyards of old, it exudes scanty old world charm.
Deep Fried Live Prawns with Curry Leaves - A brilliant recommendation by our waiter I must say. I, for one, don't really fancy curry, but this dish kinda blew me away. The prawns were relatively huge, succulent and fresh, but the winner was the sauce which had a slight tinge of curry flavouring but was slightly sweet.
Deep Fried Pork Ribs with Golden Garlic - Another recommendation by our waiter and I found it quite interesting. The pork ribs were juicy and tender whilst the sauce was sweet and hinted strongly of garlic with a salty aftertaste. Every individual flavour carried itself very well, which made the dish very easy to appreciate.
Baked Cod Fish with Mango -
I didn't find this dish outstanding, but it was still quite a gem. The fish was fresh, nothing less and baked till the exterior turned a hue of brownish red while the flesh remained white and firm. When eaten with the slices of mango, the natural sweetness of the fish blended in well with the sweetness of the mango, creating a delectable dish that didn't come down hard on the palate. But there's certainly room for improvement, given that the mango slices weren't chilled when served, which would definitely have gone down better with the fish.
Deep Fried Cod Fish with Oat Cereals - In all honesty, I didn't quite take to this dish simply because the oats taste was overwhelming. But my friend did fancy it, so to each his own I guess. Texture wise, the fish was well done with the flesh still firm and sweet while the exterior was slightly cripsy.
Yang Chow Fried Rice -
I lament the fact that good Yang Chow Fried Rice is difficult to find. Peony Jade's rendition isn't too far off though. The rice was homogeneously cooked and had a slight "wok hei" taste. Ingredients were generous but overall I found the dish a little bland. Perhaps a little salt and sugar would be nice.
Chestnut with Egg White - Desserts kinda slided down the slope. Chestnut with egg white sounded intriguing to me so I ordered it and I regretted it right from the first sip. The chilled syrup tasted awfully weird and had this overpowering egg white taste. I took a few mouths and decided to call it quits, so you can guess how weird it was. According to the waiter, it is more popular with the older folks.
Yam with Sweet Corn Sauce - This was rather normal. The yam was a little too rough for my liking and the sweet corn sauce was way too sweet. Also, it felt weird eating yam with sweet corn. Somehow or rather, both flavours didn't go down well with each other.
Service was excellent and so was the food, barring the desserts of course. Price is rather steep though, standing at $122 for 2 pax. Do note that all portions are slightly smaller than average, so if you have 4 pax, it would be advisable to order at least 6 dishes. All in all, an enjoyable experience and definitely worth a visit if you have some spare cash to burn.
See all my pictures here.
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Was roaming around T3 one evening and fancied some Chinese food for dinner so ended up at Crystal Jade Shanghai Restaurant. I'm sure Crystal Jade is no stranger to most Singaporeans but I believe this Shanghai outfit is relatively new as I don't remember seeing it anywhere else before.
Crystal Jade occupies a circular space within the terminal and there is no interior to speak of as the place practices a semi open environment which allows you a view of T3's calming interior, which honestly, is good enough for me.
Xiao Long Bao - To be frank, the XLB was probably one of the best I've eaten in any Crystal Jade outlet in the past year or so (not that I've eaten at many though). Malleable yet thin skin shrouding a lump of meat that didn't carry that overwhelming pork taste and filled with tasty, albeit a tad oily, juices.
Crispy Duck with Chinese Herbs - I thought that the crispy duck came across as overly salty and dry. The herb taste was rather evident but I failed to see how it enhanced the taste of the duck, rendering the duck average at best. Served up on the side were tiny clam shaped mantous, which were similar to those I had at Szechuan court - sweet and filling.
Egg White with Shrimp & Asparagus - This dish wasn't too fantastic but I liked it solely because its comfort food to me. The prawns were crunchy but for the price, this dish could really do with more asparagus. I did think that the egg white tasted a little too raw as well.
An average but filling meal cost the 2 of us about $58, which isn't exactly cheap for the quality of food. But I guess such prices at the airport still fall into the reasonable category. Service didn't go beyond taking our orders and serving the dishes. One thing to note, please be prepared to queue if you wish to have dinner at this restaurant on weekends.
See all my pictures here.
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